Thursday, April 3, 2008

Berkeley's Foreign Policy Costs Big Bucks

Thu, Apr 3, 2008 at 6:33 AM

So the city of Berkeley shells out $1 million a year financing its dozens of city commissions, many of which gab about topics like Darfur while potholes seethe in the hot sun. That's the gist of Carolyn Jones's latest piece in the San Francisco Chronicle, although there's not much more to the story. The always-reliable Peace and Justice Commission comes in for a well-deserved beating, but Jones doesn't really establish that the city actually spends most of that mil denouncing conflict diamonds or something. She does, however, report the dismaying news that an Oregon Ducks football club has canceled a trip to Berkeley in response to the Marines flap. Now we don't even get to mock other Pac-10 teams as their fans pour beer on each other? Will the pain of this kerfuffle never end?